2011 The Ninth Warmest Year On Record

According to NASA research, 2011 is the ninth warmest year since the space agency began taking records in 1880.

In fact, since that year, nine of the 10 warmest years on record have been after 2000, showing a clear rise in global temperature. The only one of the 10 warmest years outside of the past decade was in 1998. Meanwhile, 2010 is still the warmest year on record overall.

The data was gathered by utilizing information from more than 1,000 meteorological stations across the globe.

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a large reason for the increase in temperature, according to NASA, and those numbers too have risen steadily since 1880. In that year the amount of carbon dioxide in the air was measured at 285 parts per million, which rose to 315 in 1960 and finally 390 in 2011.

NASA predicts that over the next few years we'll see a year that will top 2010's record breaking temperatures.

"It's always dangerous to make predictions about El Nino, but it's safe to say we'll see one in the next three years," James E. Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said. "It won't take a very strong El Nino to push temperatures above 2010."

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